HOUSTON – April 16, 2012 – The 2012 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) crowned NuMat Technologies from Northwestern as the World Champion startup company Saturday night, awarding more than $1.55 million in cash and prizes at the awards banquet. This is a record year for prizes, with The GOOSE Society of Texas TM tripling their prize purse from $150,000 to $450,000 as Jack Gill and Bob Brockman handed out their Grand Prize check to the winning team. The world’s richest and largest business plan competition brought 42 teams from across the globe to pitch their new technology business plans to more than 250 judges who themselves are successful venture capital investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. More than 600 people attended the banquet that marked the conclusion of the three-day RBPC. The event, hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, marked the twelfth installment of the RBPC.